I’ve been really lucky to have seen some amazing theatre this week. On Thursday night I went down to @AE Harris with Emma to see The Cardinals by Stan’s Cafe. It was a farcical puppet show exploring those forbidden dinner party topics, religion and politics, and I thought I had it pinned, but an almost imperceptibly slow build-up took it from hilarious to shocking. It left us both speechless, and took a while afterwards to think over. The aesthetics were beautiful, with some really stunning images, and it was executed with the amazing precision it takes to create what looks like total chaos.

On Friday, I went to Warwick Arts Centre on my university campus to see Ubu Roi by Cheek by Jowl. It was another farce; the story of tyrannical ruler King Ubu, told in the context of a refined French dinner party. But despite the battles and torture being reenacted with kitchen utensils and lamps, I found myself really engrossed in the story as well as in fits of giggles.

With all this in mind, we began the first rehearsal for Off Print Tales, the project Emma and I are co-directing. We brought together Cannon Hill Collective members and other performers and jumped straight into devising. We’ve got poets, actors, dancers and musicians and are bringing them together to make a storytelling style which incorporates them all. We got together in a beautiful mac studio and asked them to respond to the first part of the story, and we got some amazing material to begin creating the piece with. We had a lot of fun, and the piece is really promising so I’m looking forward to devising with the group. So it’s been a very inspiring and theatrical few days.

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Next Generation

The Cannon Hill Collective offers young people aged 16-24 the chance to engage and connect with mac birmingham’s programme. From initiating, producing and delivering their own projects to advising on mac’s wider young people’s programme.